Preisner leaves GHAC field in his wake

Preisner leaves GHAC field in his wake

Eric Riehl — Burlington Post

With no one else in sight, Bishop Reding's Ben Preisner crosses the finish line at the GHAC cross-country meet Tuesday. Preisner won by two minutes and eight seconds, finishing the six-kilometre course in 20 minutes, 20 seconds.

DUNDAS — The measure of Ben Preisner’s dominance in winning the Golden Horseshoe boys junior cross-country title wasn’t in the two minutes and eight seconds it took for the second place runner to cross the finish line.

Instead, it came more than an hour and a half later, after Burlington’s Chris Angelatos had won the senior boys race Tuesday at the Christie Conservation Area. Angelatos had posted a comfortable 20-second victory in his race but as he discussed the win, he couldn’t help but be in awe of what he had witnessed earlier in the day.

“I’m just glad I didn’t have to race Ben Preisner,” the Corpus Christi runner said. “He would have beat me hands down.”

Last year, the Bishop Reding student won the midget boys’ title by outsprinting Georgetown’s Bryan Bartle to the line to win by three seconds. At the time, he described himself as a hockey player who runs. Which leads to one question. Is he now a runner who plays hockey?

“Yeah, it’s beginning to change,” said Preisner, who captained the Milton Winterhawks AA bantams last year and earned a call-up to the AAA Halton Hurricanes. “I still play hockey and I still love the game. I really just started running for fun but I’m spending more time running after last year.”

Following last year’s success in Grade 9 — Preisner placed no lower than second in any of his races leading up to OFSAA, where he finished 13th — he joined the Speed River Track Club.

“He seemed to like the taste of success,” said Reding coach Maureen Morrison. “He’s got natural ability and you rarely come across someone that focused.”

The extra training and instruction has paid off. Tuesday’s victory extended his winning streak to five this season. In winning the Heart Lake meet, he beat last year’s sixth-place OFSAA finisher by 45 seconds.

On a day that lacked any dramatic finishes — the average margin of victory in the other five races was 32 seconds and none closer than 11 seconds — Preisner’s win bordered on ridiculous. If there was a subway running through Christie Conservation Area, you would think he had pulled the oldest trick in the New York City marathon book.

After Preisner crossed the line, it took a minute and 20 seconds before the next runner even came into sight of those waiting at the finish line of the six-kilometre course.

“What was your time,” asked one rival later in the finish area.

“20:20,” Preisner said.

“That’s crazy,” he replied.

Preisner has his sights set on a top-six finish at OFSAA, which will be held in Ottawa Nov. 5. Even though Morrison says Preisner is “way ahead, at least in this area,” she said it’s tough to compare times from other regions because of the different courses. But of this, she’s pretty certain: “He’s GHAC’s best chance for (a medal) at OFSAA.”

His competitors, and even those who are thankful they didn’t have to race him, would surely agree.

Preisner will have plenty of support. With three other top 20 finishers, Reding teammates Isiah Lemieux (12th), Hakeem Madahey (14th) and David Jones (18th) will join him at OFSAA in pursuit of the team title.

E.C. Drury’s Shane MacDonald also qualified for OFSAA with a third-place finish in the senior boys’ race.

Milton District’s midget girls team became the school’s first OFSAA team entry in more than 20 years, placing three runners in the top 30 — Thyra Anderson (17th), Julie Kern (19th) Katie Holman (20th) and Emma Westwater (26th).

“Our (previous) race wasn’t our best and we were kind of discouraged after that,” Holman said.

But after coming through at GHAC, their accomplishment hadn’t quite registered yet. “It probably won’t kick in until we’re packing,” said Westwater. “Then it will be like, ‘Wow, we’re going to OFSAA.”